Red Cross Reflection

As a big fan of the show Grey's Anatomy, it's always been a dream of mine to learn CPR and experience what it's like to be a medical responder in the field. Once we were handed our participant kits and the instructor walked in, the whole idea of learning occupation first aid and CPR suddenly got very real. It wasn’t surprising that each session was 7 hours long and jam-packed with information since our seminar was crammed into three days.

On the first of our three sessions, the instructor began by introducing to us what Red Cross was and how it was started. We learned about the basic services like blood services and disaster management, fundamental principles of Red Cross, and of course the Red Cross emergency number, 143. Soon after, we went

It made me think back to the first session and my uncertainty of attending the seminar because I thought I would be the only 16 year old interested in first aid. Seeing so many different strangers talking to each other and working together on even the simplest of jobs in this run-down room proved to me that when it comes to saving lives, anyone can do it.

Really getting to know Red Cross, the lives of the volunteers behind it and seeing the Quezon City chapter showed me how much Red Cross does, the difficulties of doing what they do and how little they get for it. Red Cross is not government funded and works mostly from donations and seeing how they do so much and offer so many services, it’s sad to hear that donations are still lacking, not just in terms of money but also in terms of blood and kind.

I can truly say that regardless of the duration of the seminar, our instructor, Dino was really effective in teaching and drilling all the essentials of first aid into our heads. The whole experience was exhilarating and it was the most fulfilling thing I ever attended and I encourage everyone to volunteer, donate and learn whatever you can about Red Cross that will not just benefit others but also yourself in the